SIlvio Berlusconi's Mediaset has offloaded its last holidings in Endemol, maker of Big Brother and Deal or No Deal. Photograph: Ettore Ferrari/EPA

Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset said it had offloaded the last of its holdings in Endemol, the maker of shows including Big Brother and Deal or No Deal, following a debt restructure that handed control of the production company to its lenders.

The company said that the sale, of which it declined to disclose a value – although Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore said was worth €72m – "corresponds to the total of the stake held [in Endemol] by the group".

Analysts at Citigroup said that the impact on Mediaset's accounts will be "modest" given that the company had valued the debt at €61.6m. "Having already written off its equity investment, this is the end of the saga for Mediaset," said Citigroup in an analyst note. "At least this is positive news."

Mediaset bought a third of Endemol in 2007, alongside Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Endemol founder John de Mol's investment vehicle Cyrte, in a highly leveraged deal which ran into trouble as the production company's debts mounted.

After more than a year of talks Endemol's owners agreed a deal with lenders to slash its €2.8bn debt load to €500m in return for giving up control of the company to lenders.

The deal gave Apollo Global Management and de Mol's Cyrte majority ownership of Endemol. Lenders also included Centrebridge, Providence Equity Partners, Barclays, RBS and the Lehman Brothers estate.

During the protracted negotiation period, Endemol shareholders tried to engineer interest in a takeover from potential buyers. Time Warner, which has a strong relationship with de Mol, tabled two bids worth about €1bn but neither were accepted.

Mediaset is thought to have attempted to entice ITV into a joint bid – which took a look at Endemol but never undertook serious work on a bid – and then made an unsolicited bid with private equity firm Clessidra.

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